WHY THE EAR IS BLOCKED, IF THERE IS NO WAX ?

One question I often been asked is 'why my ears are blocked, if wax is not present ? . Wax is NOT the only cause for earblock. It takes lot of time convincing some patients. Sometimes I will have to show their byestander the patient's ear where the eardrum will be clearly visible . 

I thought of  narrating this because ,thinking  that ear block is due to wax some people self medicate, by using curd, warm oil, hydrogen peroxide, worse incident was using crushed garlic and the patient came with ear bleeding. Some times patients will use OTC medicines, or buy and use, any waxsolvent to dissolve their nonexistent wax and come with inflammation in the ear , or use buds or wick to clean the ear and come up with injury to the ear canal or eardrum or get cotton  inside their ear. 

WHAT ARE THE CAUSES FOR EAR BLOCK? 

EXTERNAL EAR causes like, narrow or stenosed canal, furuncle ( boil), wax, otitis externa, fungal ball, keratosis obturans( already written about it), polyp, granulations, exostosis , foreign body ( especially among kids) 

MIDDLE  EAR  causes are EUSTACHIAN TUBE BLOCK or dysfunction   ( tube that connects the ear and back of the nose( nasopharynx) which aerates  the middle ear ( behind the ear drum). 

Other causes are  fluid , discharge or pus in the  middle ear due to infections like common cold, allergies, sinusitis where tube becomes blocked. Or it could be due to infections of middle ear  with perforation ( hole) in the eardrum or polyp arising from middle ear, or ossicular  (small bones behind the eardrum) pathology.

 INNER EAR  causes  are Barotrauma  (due to pressure difference,while flying or diving) and Noise induced hearing loss ( NIHL)  to name a few. 

Sometimes other  lesions from neighbouring area may press on to the ear and cause ear block, like tumours or vascular ( blood vessels) lesions or malformations . 

MOST OF THE TIME IT'S DUE TO EUSTACHIAN TUBE BLOCK( ETD) OR DYSFUNCTION. 

This post was to make you aware of the various causes of earblock, so that  next time when you experience an ear block, won't instill anything into your ear without  checking.

 HEARING is a precious gift ,when a patient comes to us for a serious bone and soft tissue destroying infections, like cholesteatoma, or tumours, they will be worrying of hearing  rather than clearance of the deadly disease. 

SO  PLEASE TAKE GOOD CARE OF  YOUR EARS 

Will write about eustachian tube block and dysfunction  in detail later.